Behavioral monitoring replaces reasons with algorithmic performance thresholds in urban governance

Evidence

Sidewalk refers to its high-tech services as “new superpowers to extend access and mobility.” Algorithms designed to maintain critical behaviors within a prescribed zone of action would manage these data flows: “In a world in which we can monitor things like noise or vibrations, why do we need to have these very prescriptive building codes?” As an alternative, Doctoroff suggests “performance-based zoning” administered by the ubiquitous apparatus through the medium of algorithms. These processes, like Varian’s vehicular monitoring systems, are indifferent to why you behave as long as they can monitor and control the behavior you produce. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 716

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the concept of ‘performance-based zoning’ as algorithmic rule by behavioral thresholds rather than prescriptive codes.
• SEED: Angle: where regulation of behavior ends and policing of outcomes begins — the decline of reasons in governance.
• XREF: connects to: Monitoring algorithms replace managers in enforcing work intensity — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 117; Economies of action get institutionalized into automated algorithms that modify behavior — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 939; Computational governance’s metric requirements force a mimicry-based view of humanity. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1392 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Monitoring algorithms replace managers in enforcing work intensity #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 117
• Economies of action get institutionalized into automated algorithms that modify behavior #exemplifies (0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 939
• Computational governance’s metric requirements force a mimicry-based view of humanity. #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1392
• Sidewalk Labs applied Google’s behavioral surplus model to physical urban space #exemplifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 720
• Behavior-change techniques have migrated from face-to-face to automated digital tools at scale #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 2444